The invention starts with several known software vending methods. As a rule, software programs are acquired by the user in a store, where he purchases a data carrier (e.g. floppy diskettes(s) and CDROM(s)) with the software program stored thereon.
This method has the disadvantage that the buyer must purchase a data carrier in addition to the software program, and could possibly spend much time for the transaction.
Furthermore, software selling systems are known, whereby software programs are electronically sent to the buyers. Such a selling system is described for example in the article "How Much is That Object In The Window?", on page 54 of the Aug. 22, 1994 issue of "Business Week". This selling system offers the buyers software programs from different manufacturers via an electronic communications system, which can be purchased by them through this system. One disadvantage of such a system is that the buyer must have a suitable terminal available for this electronic communications system.
The invention further starts with a vending apparatus for software as described in the German Patent G 94 01 027. This vending apparatus is used to sell public domain or shareware software programs. It contains a hard disk or a CD-ROM drive, a disk drive, a simplified keyboard and a coin checking device. A software program is selected with the keyboard and copied by means of the hard disk or CD-ROM drive to a disk which the buyer has inserted into the disk drive, after the coin checker has verified the insertion of a specified amount of money.